Well, dear readers, how can it be Friday already? How can it be coming up on the end of the month already? How can time move this quickly and yet I jog so slowly? These are the questions that are on a slow boat to China in the windmills of my mind. I tell you, this month has flown by, like a gazelle studying the speeches of Plato whilst eating a lobster roll. As I sit here listening to the amazing music of Miaskovsky (twenty-seven symphonies this guy wrote), a Russian composer who sounds nothing like any other Russian composer I’ve heard, I am feeling that I’m losing weight just from typing. I call this the Typing Diet.
Yesterday was, I suppose, a day. Not a bad day, not a great day, an in-between day. I got three hours of sleep before getting up at six and announcing our new CD release. I was back in bed at seven and slept until eleven, so I guess I got a total of seven hours of sleep, although it sure didn’t feel like it. Then I answered e-mails and did some work at the computer and the piano. Then I had my first Freshly meal o’ the day, something called veggie fried rice – it wasn’t amazing or anything, but it was very tasty and it was actually the lowest calorie Freshly meal I’ve had, chiming in at exactly 400 calories. It did hit the spot, and then the spot hit it because you can’t just hit the spot without the spot retaliating. Then I went and picked up no packages, did some banking, and came home and printed out orders. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Since I had two hours until my work session, I finished watching By Sidney Lumet, the marvelous documentary about his films. It was so refreshing that this film consisted ONLY of Mr. Lumet talking about his life and films and clips of the films themselves. No pontificating critics, no friends, no actors – just Sidney Lumet, and what else do you need. The only downside of the Blu-ray is the clips look really terrible, which is wacky to me since many of the films represented have beautiful Blu-ray hi-def transfers – you wouldn’t know that from these clips.
Then I had the work session. There are a huge number of put-togethers in this show because I wanted to do as many of Mancini classics as possible and most of his movie songs are very short in duration. So, we had to do all those, which took a lot of time. Then we went over the two songs from High Time for which I wrote lyrics – I must say I’m very happy with them. But we got through it all in about ninety minutes, and then I immediately did a two-and-a-half mile jog. My legs were pretty sore from the previous day’s jog, but I made it, even though it was very slow going. Once home, the helper came by briefly, then I made the second Freshly meal, their delicious meatloaf. It was just as good as the first time I’d had it. That one’s a keeper. Whilst eating, I also watched two more Hitchcock hours – the first of them was pretty good – it starred Patrick O’Neal and Kathie Browne, and it was pretty droll and very well directed by Brit film director Philip Leacock. The other episode wasn’t quite as good, but I enjoyed it, too – directed by Lewis Teague, who, twenty years later would give us the film of Cujo, and it had a fine cast, including Martin Landau, Frank Gorshin, Harold J. Stone, and Sharon Farrell.
After that, I did more work on the computer, whilst listening to more Miaskovsky. The set is presented in completely random fashion making no sense at all, other than it’s interesting hearing an early symphony paired with a later symphony. Since I’ve been loving this music I’ll do another go-through but in chronological order. Much of his output sounds like really good movie music, some of it very reminiscent of what Bernard Herrmann would do. However, when I got to the second movement of the twenty-seventh symphony (his final symphony), towards the end of that track there were skips and clicking and all kinds of digital crap. So, I pulled out that CD, wiped it off, and managed to reload that track so it played correctly. However, the final movement had the same problem and much worse. I attempted to reload that but it wouldn’t even complete the upload, so the box is going back to Amazon and they’ll replace it with another.
Today, I believe I can almost have myself a ME day, although I have to go over my commentary and finesse it and make changes in terms of which song comes first in a couple of the put-togethers. I’ll have my first Freshly meal, hopefully pick up packages, do a jog, have my second Freshly meal in the early evening, and then relax and watch more Hitchcock hours. And tonight, performances of Dial ‘M’ for Murder resume.
Tomorrow I’m not sure what’s happening. I’m sure something will happen, and hopefully it will be lovely, but I know not what that something might be. Sunday we do another talkback after the matinee, and then I’ll go have a nice dinner afterwards. Monday we do our first Kritzerland rehearsal, and then the rest of the week is very busy with meetings and meals, our second rehearsal, and then our stumble-through and then sound check and the show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do work on the computer, eat, hopefully pick up packages, jog, eat, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray player? I’ll start – CD, Miaskovsky. DVD, Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be thinking I’m losing weight whilst practicing the Typing Diet.